The World interweaves two stories—of our interactions with nature and with each other. The environment-centered story is about humans distancing themselves from the rest of nature and searching for a relationship that strikes a balance between constructive and destructive exploitation. The culture-centered story is of how human cultures have become mutually influential and yet mutually differentiating. Both stories have been going on for thousands of years. We do not know whether they will end in triumph or disaster.   There is no prospect of covering all of world history in one book. Rather, the fabric of this book is woven from selected strands. Readers will see these at every turn, twisted together into yarn, stretched into stories. Human-focused historical ecology—the environmental theme—will drive readers back, again and again, to the same concepts: sustenance, shelter, disease, energy, technology, art. (The last is a vital category for historians, not only because it is part of our interface with the rest of the world, but also because it forms a record of how we see reality and of how the way we see it changes.) In the global story of human interactions—the cultural theme—we return constantly to the ways people make contact with each another: migration, trade, war, imperialism, pilgrimage, gift exchange, diplomacy, travel—and to their social frameworks: the economic and political arenas, the human groups and groupings, the states and civilizations, the sexes and generations, the classes and clusters of identity.

Table of Contents:
Volume 1: Chapters 1-15 Volume 2: Chapters 13-30 Volume A: Chapters 1-10 Volume B: Chapters 11-20 Volume C: Chapters 20-30     In Perspective: Cains and Abels   PART 6: the crucible: the eurasian crises of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries     Chapter 13 The World the Mongols Made   The Mongols: Reshaping Eurasia Genghis Khan The Mongol Steppe The Mongol World Beyond the Steppes: The Silk Roads, China, Persia, and Russia China Persia Russia The Limits of Conquest: Mamluk Egypt and Muslim India Mamluk Egypt Muslim India: The Delhi Sultanate Europe   In Perspective: The Uniqueness of the Mongols     Chapter 14 The Revenge of Nature:  Plague, Cold, and the Limits of Disaster in the Fourteenth Century   Climate Change   The Coming of the Age of Plague The Course and Impact of Plague Medicine and Morals The Jews Distribution of Wealth Peasant Millenarianism The Limits of Disaster: Beyond the Plague Zone India Southeast Asia Japan Mali The Pacific: Societies of Isolation Easter Island New Zealand Ozette Chan Chan In Perspective: The Aftershock   Chapter 15 Expanding Worlds: Recovery in the Late Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries   Fragile Empires in Africa East Africa West Africa Ecological Imperialism in the Americas The Inca Empire The Aztec Empire New Eurasian Empires The Russia Empire Timurids and the Ottoman Empire The Limitations of Chinese Imperialism   The Beginnings of Oceanic Imperialism   The European Outlook: Problems and Promise   In Perspective: Beyond Empires   Part 7: Convergence and Divergence to ca. 1700   Chapter 16 Imperial Arenas: New Empires in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries   Maritime Empires: Portugal, Japan, and the Dutch The Portuguese Example Asian Examples The Dutch Connection Land Empires: Russia, China, Mughal India, and the Ottomans China The Mughal Example in India The Ottomans New Land Empires in the Americas Making the New Empires Work In Perspective: The Global Balance of Trade   Chapter 17 The Ecological Revolution of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries   The Ecological Exchange: Plants and Animals Maize, Sweet Potatoes, and Potatoes Weeds, Grasses, and Livestock Cane Sugar Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate Patterns of Ecological Exchange The Microbial Exchange Demographic Collapse in the New World Plague and New Diseases in Eurasia Labor: Human Transplantations   Wild Frontiers: Encroaching Settlement Northern and Central Asia: The Waning of Steppeland Imperialism Pastoral Imperialism in Africa and the Americas Imperialism and Settlement in Europe and Asia China India New Exploitation in the Americas The Spanish Empire Brazil British North America Home Fronts in Europe and Asia New Energy Sources Land Reclamation Frontiers of the Hunt   In Perspective: Evolution Redirected   Chapter 18 Mental Revolutions: Religion and Science in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries   Christianity in Christendom   Christianity Beyond Christendom: The Limits of Success   The Missionary Worlds of Buddhism and Islam China and Japan The Mongols Islam The Resulting Mix: Global Religious Diversity—American and Indian Examples Black America White America India The Renaissance “Discovery of the World”   The Rise of Western Science   Western Science in the East   In Perspective: The Scales of Thought   Chapter 19 States and Societies: Political and Social Change in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries   Political Change in Europe   Western Political Thought   Western Society   The Ottomans   Mughal India and Safavid Persia   China Chinese Politics Chinese Society Tokugawa Japan   The New World of the Americas   Africa   In Perspective: Centuries of Upheaval   Part 8: Global Enlightenments, 1700-1800   Chapter 20 Driven by Growth: The Global Economy in the Eighteenth Century   Population Trends Urbanization Explanations Medicine The Ecology of Disease Economic Trends: China, India, and the Ottoman Empire China India The Ottoman Empire and Its Environs The West’s Productivity Leap The Scientific Background The British Example The Expansion of Resources The Global Gardening In Perspective: New Europes, New Departures     Chapter 21 The Age of Global Interaction: Expansion and Intersection of Eighteenth-Century Empires   Asian Imperialism in Arrest or Decline: China, Persia, and the Ottomans China The Asian Context Persia and the Ottoman Empire Imperial Reversal in India: Mughal Eclipse and British Rise to Power   The Dutch East Indies   The Black Atlantic: Africa, the Americas, and the Slave Trade   Land Empires of the New World The Araucanos and the Sioux Portugal in Brazil Spanish America Creole Mentalities Toward Independence In Perspective: The Rims of Empires   Chapter 22 The Exchange of Enlightenments: Eighteenth-Century Thought   The Character of the Enlightenment   The Enlightenment in Global Context The Chinese Example Japan India The Islamic World The Enlightenment’s Effects in Asia The Enlightenment and China Western Science in Japan Korea and Southeast Asia The Ottomans The Enlightenment in Europe The Belief in Progress New Economic Thought Social Equality Anticlericalism The Crisis of the Enlightenment: Religion and Romanticism Religious Revival The Cult of Nature and Romanticism Rousseau and the General Will Pacific Discoveries Wild Children The Huron and Noble Savage The French Revolution and Napoleon Background to the Revolution Revolutionary Radicalism Napoleon In Perspective: The Afterglow of Enlightenment   Part 9: The Frustrations to Progress to ca. 1900 Chapter 23 Replacing Muscle: The Energy Revolutions   Global Demographics: The World’s Population Rises   Food: Transition to Abundance   Energy for Power: Militarization and Industrialization Militarization Industrialization Industrializing Europe   Industry in the Americas   JapanIndustrializes   Chinaand Industrialization   Indiaand Egypt   In Perspective: Why the West?   Chapter 24 The Social Mold: Work and Society in the Nineteenth Century   The Industrialized Environment Palaces of Work: The Rise of Factories Critics of Industrialization: Gold from the Sewers Urbanization   Beyond Industry: Agriculture and Mining   Changing Labor Regimes Slavery and the Slave Trade Female and Child Labor Free Migrants Hunters and Pastoralists   Elites Transformed   In Perspective: Cultural Exchange—Enhanced Pace, New Directions   Chapter 25 Western Dominance in the Nineteenth Century: The Westward Shift of Power and the Rise of Global Empires   The Opium Wars   The White Empires: Rise and Resistance   Methods of Imperial Rule Business Imperialism   Imperialism in “New Europes”   Empires Elsewhere: Japan, Russia, and the United States Japan Russia The United States Rationales of Empire Doctrines of Superiority The Civilizing Mission In Perspective: The Reach of Empires     Chapter 26 The Changing State: Political Developments in the Nineteenth Century   Nationalism Nationalism in Europe The Case of the Jews Nationalism Beyond Europe Constitutionalism   Centralization, Militarization, and Bureaucratization In and Around the Industrializing World Beyond the Industrializing World Religion and Politics   New Forms of Political Radicalism Steps Toward Democracy The Expansion of the Public Sphere Western Social Thought   In Perspective: Global State-Building   Part 10: Chaos and Complexity: The World in the Twentieth Century   Chapter 27 The Twentieth Century Mind: Western Science and the World   Western Science Ascendant China India The Wider World Transformation of Western Science Physics Human Sciences Anthropology and Psychology Philosophy and Linguistics The Mirror of Science: Art   The Turn of the World   In Perspective: Science, Challenging and Challenged   Chapter 28 World Order and Disorder: Global Politics in the Twentieth Century   The World War Era, 1914-1945 The First World War Postwar Disillusionment The Shift to Ideological Conflicts The Second World War The Cold War Era, 1945-1991 Super-Power Confrontation Decolonization   The New World Order The European Union In Perspective: The Anvil of War   Chapter 29 The Persuit of Utopia: Civil Society in the Twentieth Century   The Context of Atrocities   The Encroaching State   Unplanning Utopia: The Turn Toward Individualism   Counter-Colonization and Social Change   Globalization and the World Economy   Culture and Globalization   Secularism and Religious Revival   In Perspective: The Century of Paradox   Chapter 30 The Embattled Biosphere: The Twentieth-Century Environment   Fuel Resources   Food Output   Urbanization   The Crisis of Conservation   The Unmanageable Environment: Climate and Disease   In Perspective: The Environmental Dilemma